Controversial fluorescence in situ hybridization cytogenetic abnormalities in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: new insights from a large cohort. (1st June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Davids, Matthew S.; Vartanov, Alexander; Werner, Lillian; Neuberg, Donna; Dal Cin, Paola; Brown, Jennifer R.
• Is Part Of: British journal of haematology. Volume 170:Number 5(2015:Sep.)
• Page Start: 694
• Page End: 703
• Publication Date: 2015-06-01
• Subjects: Hematology -- Periodicals; Blood -- Diseases -- Periodicals; 616.15
• DOI: 10.1111/bjh.13498
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0007-1048

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="bjh13498-abs-0001"> <title>Summary</title> <p>The significance of rarer cytogenetic abnormalities in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) remains controversial. We performed fluorescence <italic>in situ</italic> hybridization (FISH) prior to initial therapy on 618 CLL patients seen at our centre between 2005 and 2012. With a median follow‐up of 5·6 years, we found that 55 patients harbouring 14q32 rearrangements without t(14;18) had a shorter time to first treatment (TTFT) (median 26 months, <italic>P</italic> = 0·03) than patients with t(14;18) (median not reached). Patients with mono‐ or bi‐allelic del(13q) as a sole abnormality had a similarly long TTFT (median not reached). Those patients who harboured 3 or more FISH abnormalities without del(17p) had a short TTFT (4·6 months), comparable to patients with del(17p) (8 months); however, the overall survival for patients with 3 or more FISH abnormalities was longer than for patients with del(17p) with 0 or 1 additional abnormalities (median not reached vs. 54 months). FISH cytogenetics remains a useful genetic tool in the clinic, even in the era of next generation sequencing and, as such, our data provide valuable new insights for counselling patients.</p> </abstract>